Pinterest Unveils New Website Design to the Public

In its most recent update, Pinterest has subtly redesigned its website in order to improve the discovery experience.

A Better Content Sharing Experience

The new layout, of which a beta format was announced in January, has been released to the public according to a blog post by Jason Wilson, lead product designer for Pinterest.

According to Wilson, this update is centered on making Pinterest a more organized network that is easier to navigate and more engaging.

We wanted to make things simpler and cleaner, without requiring you to learn anything new,” he said. “What you’ll find are some subtle but useful changes, like bigger pins, so you see more of what you love.”

Some of these updates include:

A close up view of pins, so that users will be able to more easily find content that interests them. Users will be able to explore an entire board without having to leave the page, see what else pinners on a certain item have pinned and what else has been pinned from a particular website.

In response to user feedback, Pinterest has also added a browsing bookmark tool. Now when users are browsing pins and click on a item that interests them, the back button takes them back to where they were, instead of the beginning of the page.

Wilson also says that there will be additional updates to the iOS and Android applications to reflect these changes.

Is the Change Worth it?

While Pinterest, with this update, aims to improve the functionality of the website, not everyone is convinced the change was necessary. Following the beta announcement in January there were a comments on this change and many, like Samantha Murphy of Mashable, who likes the cleaner, more organized look.

Although the updates may be hard to spot for those who are not design enthusiasts, the aesthetic is easier on the eyes with a new gray gradient background behind all pins and the subtle changes will be an improvement for discovering new content on the site,” she said.

To me, the changes to the layout and design of Pinterest don’t seem like huge deal,” she said. “It appears that they are going for a more basic, organized look which everyone can appreciate but isn't a game changer."

A Collection of Pinterest Updates

This layout design change isn't only update for Pinterest. Despite only being available to the public for less than a year, the site has already updated its iOS app, improved security with website verification and user blocking features and added a new web analytics tool.

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